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various aspects of enslavement in Pennsylvania
Enslavement in Pennsylvania
Somerset County, Pennsylvania Enslavement Data
Enslavement Data
Henry Black, Slave Cemetery
An old abandoned cemetery near Brotherton, Stonycreek Township, is believed to hold the remains of slaves once owned by prominent township resident Henry Black. A 1934 WPA cemetery survey describes the cemetery as being "Located on the farm of Robert Baldwin, formerly the Black Homestead near
Brotherton north of the road Rt. 31, near the creek and east of the buildings about 50 rods under a large oak tree at the edge of the field, containing about 18 graves well defined with native stone, but no inscriptions on any of the stones." Several years later, local resident Mrs. Olivia Weigle identified the cemetery as the burial ground used by African Americans who were or had been slaves associated with the Henry Black family.
Newspaper columnist Mary Hause elaborated on the story, noting that Henry Black was "one of three large slave holders in Somerset county, prior to the Civil War. Slave quarters were in the rear of his large plantation...There his slaves lived, loved and died, to end in the little burial ground under a sapling oak." She also wrote that Black used the slaves as workers at his tavern, which was situated along the Glade Road.
Henry Black, who lived from 1783 to 1841, served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1816 - 1818, then served as associate judge of Somerset County from 1820 to 1840. Following that he was elected as Pennsylvania's representative to the U.S. Congress, serving until his death in 1841.
Sources
Mary Hause, A Somerset County Historical Notebook, 1945, Somerset, Pennsylvania, p. 20-21.
"Black, Henry, 1783-1841," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress,
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000498, accessed September 1, 2006.
WPA Cemetery Index, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, transcribed at http://www.rootsweb.com/~pasomers/cemetery, accessed September 1, 2006.
"Negro Mountain" and John Hyatt's Slave, Lower Turkeyfoot
From the Lower Turkeyfoot chapter of an old county history:
John Hyatt, one of the early settlers, was a native of Maryland. He came with several others, accompanied by a number of slaves, to Turkey-Foot soon after-the
settlement began. While crossing the Negro mountain, a party of Indians fired upon them and mortally wounded one of the negroes, the strongest man in the company. A piece of a hollow log was found and placed over the negro to shelter him. Throwing it off, he said, "Save yourselves and never mind me; I shall die soon." It is said that the Negro Mountain took its name from this circumstance.
Source
"History of Lower Turkey-Foot Township," transcribed at http://www.rootsweb.com/~pasomers/ltfoot/LTFHist.html, accessed September 1, 2006.
James, Captured in Carlisle, Escaped from John Quigley, 1796
Sold by Robert Allison to John Quigley circa August 1796, James escaped and followed the road to Carlisle, bound for Harrisburg to see a brother and sister.
COMMITTED
To the Jail of Cumberland county,
On the 27th day of November last, a NEGRO FELLOW, who calls himself JAMES, and confessed before James M'Cormick, Esq. of Carlisle, that he was last claimed by on John Quigley, of Somerset county, State of Pennsylvania, who purchased him of a certain Robert Allison, near Stoys Town, in the month of August last, and shortly after that period sold by said Allison to said Quigley. -- The negro says that he was not recorded and that he was on his road going over the river, to see his brother and sister.--
Therefore as said negro was only apprehended on suspicion of being a Runaway, his master if he has any, is desired to come, prove property, or claim and pay the expences and take him away, otherwise he will be discharged agreeably to law.
ROBERT GRAYSON, Jailer.
Carlisle Jail, December 26th, 1796.
Source
Kline's Carlisle Weekly Gazette, 22 February 1797.
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